fq13
Well-known member
I just spent three weeks in the Everglades. It was a great trip. I spent most of my time helping my old man out around the house (important safety tip, if your hot water heater goes? Call a plumber, don't let your dad talk you into a DIY job. It works, but I damn near have curly hair from the shock I got messing with the thing. 
).
On the fishing front it was great for this time of year. Lots of small snook and tarpon in the two foot plus range. Perfect for a six weight. Likewise, lots of sea trout and some keeper redfish. I never even got the ten weight out. It was either the six weight with green and white clousers, or a brownish clouser clone of my own design (think wooly bugger meets clouser) Or I'd get out the ultralight spinning rod if the tide was ripping or the creeks were too narrow. I never used the heavy stuff as there didn't seem to be any big tarpon around and I'm too damn old to mess with bull sharks and goliath grouper.
I will say that despite taking advantage of my Dad's Action Craft Skiff, I caught as many fish from the bank at the Port of the Islands spillway as I did fishing hell and gone in the back country. I sometimes had to stop fishing as a pod of manatees were eating the grass growing horizonitally out of the banks and the fresh water weeds that had piled up, and you couldn't cast without risking snagging one. Still it was pretty cool to watch them in very shallow water not three feet away from you. I hit the Tamniami Trail canals on the way back home. Zero luck with peacocks or snakeheads, but I did get a couple of Oscars and a nice small tarpon. Overall, a very nice trip.
). On the fishing front it was great for this time of year. Lots of small snook and tarpon in the two foot plus range. Perfect for a six weight. Likewise, lots of sea trout and some keeper redfish. I never even got the ten weight out. It was either the six weight with green and white clousers, or a brownish clouser clone of my own design (think wooly bugger meets clouser) Or I'd get out the ultralight spinning rod if the tide was ripping or the creeks were too narrow. I never used the heavy stuff as there didn't seem to be any big tarpon around and I'm too damn old to mess with bull sharks and goliath grouper.
I will say that despite taking advantage of my Dad's Action Craft Skiff, I caught as many fish from the bank at the Port of the Islands spillway as I did fishing hell and gone in the back country. I sometimes had to stop fishing as a pod of manatees were eating the grass growing horizonitally out of the banks and the fresh water weeds that had piled up, and you couldn't cast without risking snagging one. Still it was pretty cool to watch them in very shallow water not three feet away from you. I hit the Tamniami Trail canals on the way back home. Zero luck with peacocks or snakeheads, but I did get a couple of Oscars and a nice small tarpon. Overall, a very nice trip.
